… no where, it seems. Campaign for Democratic Media sent a series of questions to the five major federal parties to asses their stand on media and cultural issues. The Conservatives are the only party that did not replied. If you are as worried as I am with the non existant party platform that the Conservatives ran on (and for which about 20% of the total population of Canadians actually voted for), perhaps this list of non-anwers should make us worry even more about the future of media and culture in Canada.
Archive for the ‘culture’
Canadian librarian, Sherrill Cheda
There have been a number of recent articles about Canadian librarian, Sherrill Cheda, who died June 7th, 2008. Cheda was a librarian at Seneca College, a columnist for Chatelaine, executive director of the Canadian Periodical Publishers Association, helped found the New Feminists in the early ’70s, and was also one of the co-founders of Emergency Librarian. See here, here and here for obits. Yesterday, Section 15 also had a great article about her.
The death of SearchEngine: what’s wrong with the CBC?
CBC’s radio show Search Engine is the most downloaded show on the CBC website in the News and Current Affairs section. It has won awards in the US and has a large following on Facebook and on their own website. It’s covered issues like Net Neutrality and Copyright, with the last show covering an interview with Minister of Industry Jim Prentice on Bill C-61.
What does the CBC do in the face of such success?
They cancel the show.
A blogger in Calgary has great ideas on how to make sure this show stays alive. Here’s a great quote from his blog:
(…)canceling CBC Search Engine is like extinguishing a bright torch in our digital democracy. If we want Canadians to stay informed and be engaged in well-reasoned debate, we can’t afford to see shows like Search Engine, an intensely focused source of information, be canceled.
He suggests calling CBC Audience Relations at 1-866-306-4636 to tell them what Search Engine means to you. Ask the operate to enter your comments into the system for the record. You could also write the CBC. I also think that someone absolutely needs to create a Facebook group. Please join the Facebook group or write a petition! Possible people to write to include Richard Stursberg, Executive Vice-President of English Services (Richard.Stursberg@cbc.ca) or Susan Mitton, Executive director of CBC English Radio, (Susan.Mitton@cbc.ca)
Please help save Search Engine!
Montreal’s Anarchist Bookfair 2008
Saturday May 17th, come check out Montreal’s Anarchist Bookfair with over 100 vendors (book sellers and independent presses) that promote “values of mutual aid, direct democracy, anti-authoritarianism, autonomy and solidarity.” If you feel like setting up a workshop, presentation or panel discussion, send in your proposal by March 3rd.
- DD
Friday Fun Link - Google Takes on Wikipedia (Dec 14, 2007)
Google will soon be releasing their own take on a Wikipedia-style of information resource - Google Knols (screenshot).
Some of the significant differences will be: named authors (who can choose to receive a portion of ad revenue for the “knol” pages they write) instead of Wikipedia’s anonymous author model. The site will allow multiple “knols” on a single topic (each will be written by a single author) with the community voting for the best one and suggesting changes in a separate area instead of the collaborative style of composing articles used on Wikipedia.
(via MetaFilter)
On a completely unrelated note, this will be the last Friday Fun Link I post on LibrarianActivist. After some recent discussions with the other two librarians I took on this project with about the future of the site, it was felt that we need to re-focus on the serious side of activism. We also discussed some other potential changes and improvements to the site. Hopefully more details about these items will be forthcoming in the weeks and months to come.
I am happy to remain involved with LA as a contributor but for anyone who’s enjoyed this recurring feature, I will continue to post the Friday Fun Links on my personal blog.
- JH
Friday Fun Link - The Most Unusual Books of the World & Fifteen Word Illusions (Nov 23, 2007)
A couple fun visual sites…
The Most Unusual Books of the World
And a bonus deep thought for the day: “As a librarian, you can be idealistic. As a manager, you must be pragmatic.”
- JH
Internet Radio Temporarily Avoids Rate Hikes Again
I’m seeing conflicting reports about the latest developments in the attempt to impose royalty payments on Internet radio stations. No less a mainstream media authority than the Washington Post makes it seem like the advocacy efforts failed and the new fee structure is a done deal:
“The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to stop an increase in royalty and broadcasting fees, jeopardizing the future of some stations. As a result of the decision, handed down Wednesday, fee increases will take effect in two days.”
But then, a well-known but still relatively unknown blog like TinyMixTapes posts this:
“Despite many setbacks in the past months, as well as this week’s court denial of a “motion to stay” petition by webcasters, internet radio has been saved from the freakish royalty rate increases originally due to take effect this Sunday. “A commitment has been made to negotiate reasonable royalties, recognizing the industry’s long-term value and its still-developing revenue potential,” wrote SaveNetRadio on its website.”
SaveNetRadio, the coalition representing various online radio stations seems to confirm the second report:
“Congress and SoundExchange have heard loud and clear the amazing outpouring of support for Internet radio from webcasters, listeners and the thousands of artists they support. A commitment has been made to negotiate reasonable royalties, recognizing the industry’s long-term value and its still-developing revenue potential.
During negotiations SoundExchange committed temporarily not to enforce the new royalty rates so webcasters can stay online as new rates are agreed upon.
This development is due in great part to the millions of people who have let their Congressional representatives know about their support of Internet radio. Over 125 representatives have cosponsored the bill to this point. “
So it sounds like good news at this point but we’re not out of the woods either. Keep watching the blogs and sites I linked to above (especially the SaveNetRadio site) for further developments.
- JH
Friday Fun Link - If Public Libraries Didn’t Exist, Could You Start One Today? (July 13, 2007)
The author of the popular Freakonomics book looks at the question, “If public libraries didn’t exist, could you start one today?”
“But here’s the point I’m (finally) getting to: if there was no such thing today as the public library and someone like Bill Gates proposed to establish them in cities and towns across the U.S. (much like Andrew Carnegie once did), what would happen?
I am guessing there would be a huge pushback from book publishers. Given the current state of debate about intellectual property, can you imagine modern publishers being willing to sell one copy of a book and then have the owner let an unlimited number of strangers borrow it? I don’t think so.”
He doesn’t bring it up but I wonder if an analogy could be made to bit torrent sites today? One person buys a legitimate copy and then others are able to obtain a free copy. The only difference is that instead of dozens of uses as for popular library items, bit torrent allows thousands of copies to be downloaded. The other big difference is that bit torrent tends to focus on movies, music and TV shows that don’t have the history of “free” borrowing like books in a library do. And of course, you don’t have to “return” a digital copy.
It’s not a perfect analogy but the similarities are there.
(via Reddit)
Oh, and in a semi-related story, a PhD candidate in economics contends that the optimal length of copyright in today’s digital age is…fourteen years. (via Boing Boing)
- JH